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A 6 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday, May 21, 2003 niMToitiALS m r a m s rr |J I F .I I l V I I j I j I j IPI j I I I j I 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 337-5610 Circulation: 845-9742 Office Miuiauer JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief MARK DILLS Production Manager KELLY MONTAGUE Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLU Photography Director STEVE CROZIER Circulation Director ROD JERRED Managing Editor THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: K OSv* *itiTTIRX 1 | oakvllle galleries | "H * M fu n t IAN OLIVER Publisher NEIL OLIVER Associate Publisher TERI CASAS aP n ffln u (\jC * a ta < 0A Q to W X J tttQiu uuVi pV w r^w iigfk V rtM * A d M i«M tw a k M k u r'oWu Nww. Bame Artvancn. Batryn Bay B cfcn EntBft»«K*. Bruinnun Gunman. Burtngton PcaS. V W to n Caradan OuOe. .` m w r a v t c Aurora Era Bant Shecpna Nmm (tu tn g m rrfhscngN m M .Q tyP vert C o * > 9nooaV naoa C o m o c a n n . 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A l)C T I0 H (SttUQriUi ^ /r w ^ 8 0 S 1 N 6 S SE X C aU N C * The jury is still out A society is often defined by its O ttaw a to resolve the conundrum young and. by extension, by how it and it has been m et. predictably, treats its youthful offenders. w ith m ild firew orks. Q uebec w ould How to deal w ith y oung crim inals like the A ct w eakened. O ntario and has long been a contentious co n v er A lberta staunchly oppose that. sation in C anada. E ven the title o f T he Y JC A attem pts, once again, young people w ho have com m itted to focus on opportunities for reha crim es has u n d erg o n e a stead y bilitation. not punishm ent. It c o n tran sfo rm atio n fro m 'ju v e n ile tains stricter rules on the public delinquent' to `y o ung o ffen d er' to identification o f youthful crim inals the latest v ersio n an d their victim s. And " The trouble often offered up in the new w hile adult sentences stems from the Youth Justice C rim inal are perm issible under A ct (Y JC A ). `y o u n g difficulty of matching som e extrem e circum person.' stances, all trials m ust an appropriate T h e tro u b le o fte n take place in juvenile punishment with the stem s from the d ifficul court. In the past, a seri possibility of ty o f m a tc h in g an o u s crim e co u ld be rehabilitation." ap p ro p ria te p u n is h tried in adult court. m ent w ith the po ssib ili W e d o n 't h av e to ty o f rehabilitation. Y oung c rim i stretch o u r im aginations to u n d er nals are arg u ab ly less h ard en ed stand w hy individuals o r fam ilies than their ad u lt co u n terp arts, and w hose lives have been tom apart by thus m ore open to efforts to tran s a y oung offender will w ant to see form them into p ro d u ctiv e m e m the accu sed head to adult court. bers o f society. T h e last thing these T hey will w an t that y o u n g p e r youths need, g o es the thin k in g , is to son to take full re sp o n sib ility fo r learn m ore bad lessons in jail. th eir behaviour, ev en if it m ean s Few people w ant to see young, ac cep tin g ad u lt c o n se q u en ce s. v u ln e ra b le an d im p re s sio n a b le T h e act ca m e into e ffe c t A pril 1. teens to ssed in prison. Still, there but its real v alu e w ill no t be are crim es so h ein o u s that ju stice k n o w n u n til c a s e s sta rt b e in g cannot and sh ould not be served p ro c essed u n d e r the n ew rules. w ith a light term . U ntil that tim e, the ju ry is still T he Y JC A is the latest attem pt by out. LETTERS Til THE EDITOR Proposed pesticide question `unconscionable' Ed. Note: The follow ing letter has been edited fo r length. I have followed with interest and much chagrin the antics o f Town council in the m atter o f pesticide use: culm inating in the agenda items, non-essential use o f pesticides on public/private lands that was carried by m ajor ity vote March 4. It son o f bog gles the m ind to see that Oakville Lawn Bowling green and rose collections at Shell Park and G airloch G ardens are exem pt -- one does question w hat "special interest' allow s this when all others, the taxpay ers o f Oakville, will be denied the same rights. O ne does realize that belief in various certainties can spawn gullibility on one hand and intol erance on the other. We find this often in simplistic assertions that have been accepted without seri ous considerations, and obvious ly. transmitted in crude form to many o f our Town council. O ur media doesn't help in publishing ridiculous stories of one Oakville person w ho 'escaped' to Halifax last sum m er to a sup posedly pristine environm ent where pesticide, herbicide, fun gicide use is not allow ed. Halifax, even today, discharges raw sewage in to the harbor! Are we in O akville to be denied the use o f such chem icals because of one person .' Or, for that matter, fellow traveller, or those that see an extra buck if this asinine legislation is passed? We have ou r ow n federal governm ent testing and licens ing over-the-counter pesticides as safe for use: it certainly seems counterproductive for our Town council to ban them on the o ut cry o f a m iniscule few. Much has been said in recent times about scientific honesty. Nature, the prem ier scientific m agazine, now asks that all sub missions reveal research interest for m ajor com m ercial com pa nies and will reject subm issions judged to be self-serv ing. Oakville talks o f a SKK).(KK) and S400.000 yearly budget com plaint response and bylaw enforcem ent. I. for one, can 't afford it! I find the proposed question on the ballot unconscionable. W ritten by those who haven't really thought this through, or, possibly, it serves th eir ow n agenda, it is m eaningless to many gardeners. How m any ask for pesticide, fungicide or herbi cide? It is a sim ple m atter o f research: ask your local retailer how many use these terms. I w ould guess, alm ost nil! They ask for weed killer or, "How do I get rid o f the grass grow ing in my gravel drivew ay?" or "W'hat can 1 do about the insects on my roses?" Do you really believe they think in term s o f herbicides, pes ticides and fungicides? O f course not! W'hat about Oakville voters w ho live in apartm ent buildings or townhouses, who do not have gardens: do their votes count as much as m ine? 1 have seen abuse of agricul tural chemicals: a never forgotten scene, south o f Riyadh. Saudi Arabia, where I observed a trac tor driver enveloped in clouds of D D T that he was spreading. This is pure abuse and should not have been allowed. On the other hand, D D T is still used to com bat malaria in some parts o f this world as the disease is worse than the after effects. Much the same as our own growing problems with West Nile Virus. Do we spray, malathion. I believe is the agent, or do we allow those who use questionable scientific data to delay spraying and cause unnec essary deaths o f adults and chil dren? There is no doubt we can be overw helm ed by the plethora o f inform ation: we now have the Internet that is full o f junk sci ence. Even o u r m ost august institutions lack understanding. W hat hope do w e have for O akville Town Council? IVOR DAVIES An informed opinion Minor Oaks hockey would appreciate everyone forming a more informed opin ion with respect to the Town's 'Youth First' Prime Time ice policy. Contrary to Mr. Robertson's assertion in an earlier let ter. this is not a "knee-jerk reaction to minor hockey's pleas." but a necessary first step regarding serious ice time short ages. 1. The policy relates only to prime lime ice. Adult user groups still have access to Town ice. either early morning or after 10 p.m. They can play at this time much eas ier than our young people: 2. This is not a minor hockey versus adult confrontation. MOH A is only one of the youth groups involved that have a need for additional ice hours to serve the community. Our "lobby ing" for addition al ice time is to accommodate young peo ple on waiting lists who otherwise will not have a place to play. Mr. Robertson's com ments re: ice time allocation between house league and rep are misleading; 3. It is disappointing that we are being portrayed as the "bad guys." For years we have been trying all avenues to find ways to put as many players on the ice as pos sible. We have added more than 600 play ers in the last four years and still had a waiting list of approximately 2(X) last sea son. We now have 34 of the possible 42 6 a.m. ice slots and 19 at 5 p.m. weekdays. These times already pose challenges to our parents and volunteers that we are try ing to mitigate; 4. We have presented our concerns to the Town on several occasions and posted them to our membership (see die letter on our Web site at www.moha.on.ca). The lack of ice hours in Oakville is a continu ing and serious concern. MOHA clearly wants more and better ice times. We have a responsibility to our membership to pursue each and every opportunity to do this. It is simple math. Every two hours of additional ice time allows us to support two more teams -- 32 players, one o f whom may be your son or daughter. WAYNE MOOREHEAD. VICE PRESIDENT. HOUSE LEAGUE MINOR OAKS HOCKEY ASSOCIATION LETTER (IF THE W EEK 0PA 198 debate sunk to polarization, says TCRA This letter is in response to response to Mr. David B azar's letter published in the May 7 O akville Beaver. We agree that the delay in passage o f OPA 198 is the rea son why the Town finds itself in its current jackpot where developers may control development o f the lands north of Dundas. To lay the blam e for this situation entirely at the feet of those councillors who voted against it is. however, an over sim plification. Som e councillors were doubtless intim idated by the threat o f the OM B in the first place, and given the infa mous 90- day rule, they should indeed have had concerns. T heir desire to avoid the O M B, which was strategically in the best interests o f Oakville, gave rise to distrust and polar ization. C itizens' groups, notably Oakvillegreen and C lear the Air. w anted to ensure that the tim ing did not result in a loss o f protection for the environm ent (again strategically, this was in our view a m isjudgm ent, and we said so at the time). O ther councillors were probably equally intimidated by the political fallout o f passing the am endm ent, or as Mr. Bazar put it. saw it as a political opportunity, and voted against it. It w as the adversarial way in w hich this evolved and the lack of tnist that characterized it that put us where w e are today. How else to explain the shift o f position o f O akvillegreen w hen their dem ands appeared to have been met by the Stakeholders' Advisory Com m ittee? O ur council found it im possible to work consensually in the best interests o f the Town. TCR A w as disappointed that the debate sunk to polarization rather than rising to com pro mise. and that the sides took turns threatening each other with the consequences o f not capitulating. Petty am bition may have played a part, as Mr. Bazar sug gests, but in our view, at least part o f the blam e for this belongs with the dynam ic created by the 90-day rule, and we strongly support the recom m endations o f the GTA task force for OM B reform. TRAFALGAR-CHARTWELL RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION CHRIS STOATE. PRESIDENT Barriers are not always physical 1 have been a resident o f O akville for the past 14 years and have seen the city grow and grow. O akville has alw ays been a specially considerate com m unity, but w ith grow th this characteristic seem s to be slipping. Last year the O ntario governm ent passed the O ntarians with D isabilities Act, and established a criterion to have m unicipalities address the need to rem ove/prevent barriers to access, w hich in itself is a good thing. H ow ever the barriers that are difficult to rem ove are peo p le's attitudes, especially business folks w ho seem to think that providing easy access to people with special needs is detrim ental to their business. Wake up. guys and gals, easy access for potential custom ers is a good thing. T hose o f you w ho have prevented O akville T ransit from having stops close to your entrances are at a loss. A ble-bodied people all appreciate and applaud those businesses w hich are considerate o f their custom ers with special needs. I'd like to ask the reader to take note o f w here the bus stops are com pared w ith the entrance to m alls and/or stores. And if you were using a walker, cane, or were in a wheelchair, how difficult would it be for you to get to the entrance? FAZAL HUSAIN, MEMBER OF ACCESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF OAKVILLE The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council ts located at 80 Could S t. Suite 2 06 , Toronto. O nt. M5 B 2 M7 . Phone (416 ) 340-1981 Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, togeth er with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for. but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. We need more people like Father Watters - he is a gift What a lovely article about Father Watters (the Beaver. May 10)! He is a most positive and faith-filled man. I attended the First Communion of my grand son. on Sunday, at St. A ndrew's Parish and I was deeply inspired by the positive attitude and caring attention he gave to each child. He also paid tribute to the parents, w ho lire the primary educators of their precious children and who deserve the praise and encourage ment he gave them. He indeed expressed the need and the wish that the school, home and parish all work together to form solid, loved and loving citizens for today and our future. We need many more like Father Watters. He is a gift to the community and very deserv ing of his award. DEANNA LAGROIX Pud By STEVE NEASE